The Justice

Gruszko said she did not intend to pursue the issue further because she did not know the person's name. "I'm surprised because a lot of the complaints that were made about the protest essentially come down to, 'It was rude of the protesters to get in the way of the event,' … but I think it's obviously much ruder to physically assault someone who was trying to protest as respectfully, quietly and peacefully as they can."

Callahan said with regard to the protesters, "Obviously they were disruptive, which is somewhat against [the Student] Rights and Responsibilities [Handbook]. … If students wanted to initiate some kind of [protest action], they could have conferred with the Office of Student Life."

Public Safety officials provided three chances for the students to stop the disruption before further action was taken, Callahan said.

Callahan said that he believed some vocal elderly attendees of the event were asked to leave because they were being disruptive. He added that another individual tried to approach Goldstone when Public Safety escorted him to his car after the event, and the person followed instructions to go on his way.

"Our basic message was that we felt the way that the event was set up was exclusionary. It did not include a viewpoint from the Palestinian community, and the way it was set up … basically set up the dynamic where Goldstone's report was essentially seen as anti-Israel," Jon Sussman '11, one of the protesters, said. "[The event] marginalizes people who are Zionists, like myself, and others who believe that the state of Israel has created serious crime and then is not necessarily living up to its stated ideals," Sussman said. Gruszko said that the protest wasn't organized by a particular group and that there were multiple organizations involved.

"I think that instead of disrupting the discussion, it would've been more beneficial to everyone involved to pay attention and try and actually listen to the opposition … than ignore them and stand up and protest," event attendee David Mandel '11 said.

Continued...

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